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I’ve got some birthday money in my pocket and am thinking about spending it on my first ultra-light kite. I’m looking for some advice from fliers more experienced than I.

I’ve been flying a Flying Wings Alpha+ for the past couple seasons and am happy with it. In case you're not familiar, it’s essentially the Beetle’s big brother. I’m certainly no sport kite expert but am now usually able to avoid unintended “landings.” At this point, I'm more of a precision flier than a trick flier (but that might be mostly because I haven't learned any tricks yet!). What I need is something to use outdoors in Indiana when the Alpha+ won’t fly.

My budget would allow me to buy a new or used kite priced at under $200. That unfortunately rules out new versions of Ken McNeill’s and Jon Trennepohl’s excellent kites (I'd love to have a UL Mamba or a Pro Dancer SUL). I’d be willing to buy a good used UL BMK or Skyburner kite at the right price but they seem difficult to find. I’ve been watching online kite classified ads and haven’t seen any.

I can't comment on all of the kites on your list. The FW Silver Fox UL is more of a light standard than a proper UL. I have a Shadow and it's a very nice kite at a great price, a proper UL in fact almost a SUL - it will fly and trick from about 1 1/2 -2 mph and quite tricky although some find it a bit twitchy, it's something you get use to. It's also pretty strong for a UL and if you do break anything it's cheap to fix - no super expensive spars. There are better UL's on the market for more money, but at the price it's hard to beat. There was one in the swap meet a couple of weeks ago, I don't know if it sold,

Yep, it's still there for $60! you won't be disappointed ( and it's the nice purple tattoo one that we never got in the UK ! )

For my 2 cents give the Acrobatx UL some serious consideration. This is in your price range and I've seen it do all what you want. I'm learning tricks the Acro is making it alot easier. My flying buddies are real pros and trick it like nobodies business. Kite easily handles wide range of winds from 1or 2 up to good 9-10. For what it's worth I also ordered slightly heavier rods from Steve should boost it up to around 15 mph. Just my 2 cents but this has become a 'go to' kite for several of us.

I have a Shadow and it's a very nice kite at a great price, a proper UL in fact almost a SUL ... There was one in the swap meet a couple of weeks ago, I don't know if it sold ... Yep, it's still there for $60!

Turns out there was an error in the Shadow listing. The seller actually wants $140 for it, which might still be a good price but it's not the steal $60 would have been!

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